The very first dinosaur skeleton was found by scientists in 1824 in Great Britain. The huge bones were mistaken for the remains of an ancient lizard, so a first dinosaur for sciencecalled Megalosaurus. Since then, paleontologists have discovered a huge number of other bones, and today science knows about the existence of more than 1,000 species of dinosaurs. Thanks to modern technologies, scientists are now excavating several skeletons a year, so the 21st century can be called “golden” in terms of this kind of discoveries. But the number of dinosaur species was not infinite, so the question arises: how many more ancient dinosaurs remain to be discovered by science? When will we be able to say we know about every dinosaur that lived millions of years ago? Scientists even have an answer to this question.
Thanks to modern technology, today scientists are discovering new species of dinosaurs more often than before. Image source: dewalls.ru
Discovery of new species of dinosaurs
According to Live Science, scientists most often find dinosaur bones in North America, China and Argentina. This is due to the fact that millions of years ago ancient creatures mainly lived on these lands. Sometimes scientists find dinosaur skeletons in Russia – for example, in 2010, the remains of Kulindadromeus were discovered in the Trans-Baikal Territory. It may also surprise many that in the Moscow region, paleontologists found the remains of representatives of huge diplodocoids (Diplodocoidea).
Judging by the finds, giant diplodocus walked across Russia millions of years ago. Image source: dinopedia.ru
Dinosaur skeletons usually lie at great depths, in layers of earth hundreds of millions of years old. Sometimes bones are discovered by chance, and in some cases they appear on the surface during construction work. After discovering bones, paleontologists carefully remove them from the ground and then study their structure in the laboratory. If the bones are similar to the remains of already known dinosaurs, they are classified as one or another already discovered species. If the skeleton is unlike anything else, scientists announce the discovery of a new species of dinosaur.
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How many dinosaurs lived on Earth
Scientists have found skeletons of 1000 species of dinosaurs, but how many were there in total? There is no exact answer to this question, but some scientists have interesting assumptions.
For example, paleontologist Steve Brusatte once estimated the total number of dinosaurs based on the number of birds known to science.
As you know, dinosaurs are divided into two huge groups: avian and non-avian. Avian dinosaurs include species that were covered in feathers and are the ancestors of all modern birds. Non-avian dinosaurs include all other dinosaurs not included in the first group – there are many more of them.
Bird dinosaurs, as the name suggests, were covered with feathers. Image source: travelask.ru
Considering that there are more than 10,000 birds in the world today, it is quite logical to assume that there were many more dinosaurs. The ancestors of modern birds were more than ten thousand species, and if we take into account the totality of non-avian species, we can talk about hundreds of thousands or even millions of dinosaurs that once lived on Earth long ago.
If this is true, then today day, scientists discovered an insignificant number of species. And in order to study the entire history of ancient creatures, we will need many hundreds of years.
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< h2>When all the dinosaurs will be unlocked
But there are also alternative opinions. In 2006, paleontologists Steve Wang and Peter Dodson identified the possible number of dinosaur genera. A genus is a collection of several species of living organisms that have common characteristics in appearance, behavior, and so on. Calculations showed that there were 1850 genera of dinosaurs in the world. Today, scientists have discovered 527 genera, that is, about 71% remain to be discovered.
Many genera of dinosaurs known to science include only one species. Considering that several species probably belonged to one genus, there may be a lot of undiscovered dinosaurs, and it is impossible to determine their exact number.
Perhaps the golden age of dinosaur discovery will last another hundred years. Image source: mir24.tv
According to calculations by Steve Wang and Peter Dodson, approximately 75% of all dinosaurs that lived on Earth can be discovered in the next 60-100 years. After another 140 years, scientists will know about 90% of the dinosaurs that have ever existed.
There are also more mundane research results. In 2016, scientists carried out scientific work and announced that 1936 species of dinosaurs lived on Earth millions of years ago. If these calculations are correct, scientists only have about 900 dinosaurs left to unearth, and the history of ancient dinosaurs can be considered fully studied.
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Unfortunately, scientists can only give approximate answers to the questions raised in this article, nothing concrete. We can only follow the news about discovered dinosaurs – fortunately, sometimes paleontologists share very interesting details. If you, like us, love this topic, read our material “The most important scientific discoveries about dinosaurs for 2023.”